The present invention relates to a program production and transmission apparatus which is suitable for application in a news program production and transmission apparatus for producing and transmitting a news program, for example, in a press department of a television broadcasting station.
A news program in television broadcasting is required to rapidly and correctly communicate to the audience miscellaneous news sources which may have been collected at respective branch offices of a broadcasting station, branch sections, clubs, and so on.
For the production of an actual news program, news sources must be efficiently collected in respective branch offices, branch sections, clubs or the like, after a news collection therefor is scheduled in a press department, in order to smoothly edit the collected news sources and broadcast the edited news program within a limited time frame of broadcasting time allocated therefor.
The press department, when producing a news program, involves an editing operation for news sources which includes the creation of a telop and a caption to be superimposed on a screen on which a video image recorded by the news collection is displayed. A news program produced in this way is transmitted on the air in accordance with a cue sheet which indicates the contents of the program, times at which respective items composing the program are to be broadcast, and so on. The cue sheet on which the broadcasting information for the program is written is also created in the press department based on a broadcasting schedule determined in the broadcasting station.
The press department also preserves and manages materials used in broadcast programs thus produced, using a VTR (Video Tape Recorder) or the like, in order to record such materials as program documents or source materials.
News sources collected at branch offices, branch sections, and clubs are sent to the press department through telephone conversations and facsimile transmissions using telephone lines for producing a news program. Similarly, schedules for news reporters, situations of required equipment, and so on for collecting news sources are also communicated through telephone lines.
In this event, the information communications through telephone lines have a problem that they are likely to fail to correctly transmit information necessary to production and transmission to a party requiring the information, thus causing a reduction in efficiency of program production.
Also, in a broadcasting station, a section in which a cue sheet is created, a section in which program components are edited in accordance with the cue sheet, and a section in which a produced program is transmitted are in almost all cases located away from each other in a press department. In this situation, communications of information between these sections for creation of a cue sheet, editing of program components based on the cue sheet, or transmission of an actually produced program in accordance with the cue sheet are made through verbal messages, telephone communications, delivery by hand of memorandum, and so on.
In this event, for example, if a program component must be changed due to a collected urgent news while a news program is on the air in the press department, it is necessary to immediately switch the broadcast program. However, the information communications through verbal messages, delivery by hand of memorandum, and so on may fail to rapidly communication required information or fail to correctly communicate information to a party who requires it, as is the case of the above-mentioned program production, thus causing a problem that the working efficiency is reduced during the production of the program and the transmission of the program.
The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing problems, and is intended to propose a program production and transmission apparatus which is capable of reliably and rapidly communicating and processing information required for production and transmission of programs.
To solve the problems mentioned above, the present invention provides a program production and transmission apparatus for creating a plurality of materials constituting a program and sequentially transmitting the materials based on a program progress table for indicating the progress of the program, which comprises program production supporting means for creating production information including a schedule for creating the materials and program component information indicative of respective components in the program, transmission equipment controlling means for creating the program progress table from the program component information created by the program production supporting means, and for transmitting the materials based on the program progress table, material creation managing means for recording the materials transmitted from the transmission equipment controlling means, and for editing the respective recorded materials, storing means for storing data other than the materials, and network means for connecting the program production supporting means, the transmission equipment controlling means, the material creation managing means, and the storing means, wherein means for managing the transmission of all programs, and exterior supporting means for transmitting production schedule information for creating the production information to the program production supporting means are connected to the network means.
The program production supporting means, the transmission equipment controlling means, the material creation managing means, and the storing means are interconnected through the network means, and the managing means and the exterior supporting means are connected to the network means, thereby making it possible to realize a program production and transmission apparatus capable of efficiently executing creation of program component information with production information produced based on production schedule information, creation of a program progress table formed based on the program component information, and processing for editing and transmission based on the program progress table at timing as required.